It is believed that the film "Nine-story Demon Tower" distorts and falsifies the original work "Ghost Blowing Lamp", which goes beyond the necessary modifications permitted by law and infringes the copyright owner's right to protect the integrity of the work. Zhang Muye, the author of Ghost Blowing Lights, sued Lu Chuan, the director of China Film Co., Ltd. and the nine-story demon tower, claiming 1 10,000 yuan. 65438. 10. 7 It is reported that the Xicheng District People's Court of Beijing has put on record the case and is currently hearing it.
Zhang Muye, the plaintiff, claimed in the indictment that Zhang Muye wrote a series of literary works under the pseudonym of Muye Zhang. Based on the theme of grave robbery, the novel tells the story of several "gold-touching captains" who used their ancestral geomantic knowledge to explore and treasure everywhere. The novel is exquisite in content, using a large number of literary epics and rich folklore, including geography, geomantic omen and exotic customs. , with high literary value, triggered the "tomb-robbing literature" craze. Since its publication in February 2006, the series of novels "Ghost Blowing Lights" has attracted tens of millions of readers, printed many times and sold over ten million copies. Based on the praise of the series of novels of Ghost Blowing Lamp and its huge readership, China Film Co., Ltd. and Lu Chuan adapted and filmed Ghost Blowing Lamp into a film, which was released on September 23rd, 20 15 under the name of the Nine-story Demon Tower.
However, after the film was broadcast, Zhang Muye thought that the plot, character setting and story background of Nine-story Demon Tower were far from the original, which was beyond the scope of necessary revision permitted by law, and the social evaluation was extremely low, which constituted a distortion and tampering of the original, causing great mental damage to the plaintiff, and distorted and tampered with the original in terms of character setting and story setting, thus infringing the plaintiff's right to protect the integrity of the work. Therefore, Zhang Muye sued China Film Co., Ltd. and Lu Chuan to the Xicheng court, requesting the court to order the two defendants to immediately stop the infringement, publicly apologize to Zhang Muye, eliminate the influence, and compensate Zhang Muye for various losses of 6,543,800 yuan.
It often happens that novelists and screenwriters sue filmmakers for copyright fees or signature rights. However, because the adaptation is too outrageous, it is the first time to bring the filmmaker and director to court. Real money bought the copyright of the novel, but the defendant changed too much. Is this statement true?
Lawyer: Even if there is no breach of contract, it violates the right to protect the integrity of the work.
In response to this case, many people in the industry said: the law does not clearly stipulate the responsibilities of the original and the adaptation party, depending on whether the original author has the right to review in the contract. If this is the case, then the film of "Nine-story Demon Tower" is very passive. Wu Shan, a lawyer of Chengdu Taihetai Law Firm, said after reading the cases reported by the media that Muye Zhang's reasons for protecting the integrity of works were sufficient to support his lawsuit. "If the contract states that the author has the right of final review, then the fact of breach of contract is established. Moreover, the film is a breach of contract and infringes on the author's personal rights, because protecting the integrity of the work is one of the personal rights. " At the same time, Wu Shan said that even if the contract does not indicate that it has the final right to review scripts, Muye Zhang can sue for infringement.
If the infringement is successful, Muye Zhang has the right to cancel the copyright of the novel, which means that the sequel may not be made. Wu Shan said: "Because the specific case is unknown, if the infringement wins, it will theoretically go beyond the scope of the contract and infringe on the author's rights and interests. This is more complicated, depending on whether their contracts are signed separately and how many they have signed, but Muye Zhang does have the right to claim the validity of the contracts. "
(According to Legal Daily and Huaxi Dushi Bao)